


Iconic

by kribban



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:02:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21952636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kribban/pseuds/kribban
Summary: My last entry for the Advent Calender. Merry Christmas!
Kudos: 6
Collections: Star Trek Ships Advent Calender 2019





	Iconic

Being invited to holiday celebrations on non-Federation planets was always a double-edged sword.

Yes, it signaled the planet's openness to strangers, but that openness could turn to resentment quickly if Starfleet personnel caused offense. Doing or saying the wrong thing was far too easy when you didn't know all of the cultural complexities. 

And of course, there was always the danger of the celebrations turning into ritual sacrifice. 

Though, sometimes, it wasn't quite as bloodthirsty as it sounded. 

Jim smirked at the memory of being ”forced” to masturbate into a silver chalice held by a beautiful naked woman. Some sacrifices were easier to make than others.

But the end-of-winter celebrations on Linka sounded very straight forward from the reports of the Diplomatic Corps. Members of the royal family created an effigy to celebrate the end of their planet's twenty-month long winter. There would be a choir and a speech to the crowds, announcing the arrival of spring, which also lasted twenty months.

Jim couldn't imagine what their summers were like. 

There would be no destruction of the effigy, no fire, no mandatory drinking of unknown beverages. On the odd chance that things would go unexpectedly sour, the transporter chief would have a lock on them the whole time.

Whatever was going to happen, Jim was ready for it. Or so he thought.

The feeling that bubbled up inside him while he stood in front of the effigy, dressed in a long winter coat that the quartermaster had replicated for him, was not one that he was prepared for. It wasn't trepidation, awe, or even disgust. 

It was amusement.

Bones elbowed him discreetly as Jim bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

”I'm sorry, I can't help it,” he hissed as the King received a long, brightly colored vegetable from the High Priestess.

A second later, the universal translator relayed what he was saying.

”And so we place the likeness of a nose on the icon to symbolize the sweet scents of spring that we shall soon be able to smell.” 

”Jim!” Bones said sharply as Jim lost control of himself and doubled over laughing. 

”It's a snowman!” Around him, members of the Royal Court turned to glare at him, regal as they were in their elaborate fur coats. ”They're building a fucking snowman!”


End file.
